Bethesda Softworks and Tango Gameworks have announced that some brand new DLC is on the way for The Evil Within to further explain the game's story and characters. There will be a three part DLC trilogy for the game; all the DLC will be story content, which will be made available throughout 2015.
The first of the three downloadable content packs will be The Assignment. The DLC will put players into the shoes of Sebastian's partner, Juli Kidman. Her story is described as being more personal than Sebastian's, and will offer players a bit more banter and "commentary" throughout the experience.
The news was originally let loose on Bethesda's blog, where the director for two of the three upcoming DLC packs, John Johanas, revealed a few details about the upcoming content pack and explained what gamers can expect and what it entails.
One of the main things is addressing the game's sort of mysterious, open-ended approach to storytelling, and Johanas wants to maintain that with both The Assignment and The Consequence, saying...
“Early on, we listed the things that we wanted to answer and ones we wanted to keep open and worked around that. We definitely leave some of the mysteries open, but I feel we shed a lot of light on the lore of Ruvik, STEM, and the characters while asking (and answering) a whole new set of questions regarding Juli and her mission.”
That sounds promising and yet open for lots of future potential. You can't jump the shark too early when you're planning on expanding a game into a franchise. Of course, one might ask why The Evil Within's DLC wasn't just withheld and fully fleshed out into their own games if they have sizable enough content with these other characters? That could be answered with the possibility that the stories may not be large enough to warrant a full eight hour experience.
Nevertheless, Johanas addresses the girth of the content and what should be deemed reasonable enough as a hearty horror-survival experience on the DLC front, saying...
“I’m actually a big DLC guy so I struggled a lot in early planning with which direction to take it in. How many levels and what’s the pacing? Do we add new weapons or mechanics? Since we decided early on the character was going to be Kidman, I wanted the DLC to play different rather than having it feel like just a character skin. My favorite DLCs have been ones that give the player a new spin on gameplay, while still feeling connected to the main title.”
Unfortunately Johanas doesn't spill any beans on whether or not new weapons will be added. Instead we only learn that there were various chapters directly from the main game of The Evil Within that helped inspire how some of the story and puzzles would unfold with Juli's mission(s).
We also get a brief idea about the kind of variation that the developers will be aiming for when players eventually take control of Juli Kidman, with Johanas explaining that there will be some similarities and familiarity from Sebastian's experience, but there will also be a separate identity to the game when playing as Juli compared to Sebastian...
“I would say there’s quite a bit of variation in her encounters so I wouldn’t want anyone to think “Oh, it’s just another Chapter XX.” Even the “horror” element has a different feel! Juli’s experiences are much more dark, lonely, and claustrophobic.”
So will this be a proper expansion and not just a cash-in DLC like some other games? It kind of sounds like it might be the former but we won't know for sure until it becomes available.
According to the Bethesda blog post, The Assignment will be available for The Evil Within in early 2015.
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